There have been incidents where pilots lose consciousness after suffering decompression resulting in asphyxia and the autopilot maintains the aircraft at the selected altitude. Some business jets are equipped with an automatic emergency descent mode activated after increasing of cabin altitude above a certain level. However, the pilot determines the final descent altitude and the most suitable direction for commencement of descent in known applications based on terrain and local pressure and temperature deviations from standard conditions.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system and method for automatically initiating an emergency descent upon sensing a loss in cabin pressure, and determining the optimum descent track and target altitude. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the exemplary embodiments will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.